The rain had stopped.
Yet the streets remained soaked, not with water—but with silence.
No merchants called from their stalls. No children chased one another through the square.
Only whispers drifted beneath the cobblestones.
Vivi couldn't ignore them anymore.
Each step through the palace echoed with voices only she could hear.
"Come below..."
"Bearer of the First Flame..."
"We remember your name..."
She stopped in the middle of the corridor.
"Haken."
He turned immediately.
"You hear them?"
"No."
She looked toward the floor.
"They're calling me."
Far beneath the palace...
The High Crow Priest knelt before an enormous stone door wrapped in chains thicker than tree trunks.
Every chain bore the royal crest.
Every lock burned with ancient runes.
Yet...
A single crack had appeared.
From within came one slow heartbeat.
Boom...
Boom...
Boom...
The priest lowered his head.
"It awakens."
A voice answered from beyond the door.
Not loud.
Not angry.
Simply...
Old.
"Has the Flame returned?"
"Yes."
"And the Wolf?"
"He stands beside her."
The heartbeat stopped.
The silence that followed was somehow worse.
Meanwhile...
Haken wandered through the palace gardens beneath a sky hidden by storm clouds.
The wolves outside the walls refused to enter the city.
Instead...
Every one of them stared toward the cathedral.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then an old woman appeared beside the broken fountain.
She wore no crown.
No armor.
Only a cloak woven from raven feathers.
"You carry his blood," she said.
Haken frowned.
"I carry my own."
The woman smiled sadly.
"If only that were true."
Before he could question her—
She vanished.
Leaving only a silver feather drifting to the ground.
That evening...
Vivi stood before the throne alone.
The crown rested in her hands.
Its fire was calm.
Too calm.
Then...
It spoke.
Not in whispers.
Not in dreams.
A single sentence.
"The prison beneath your kingdom was never built to keep something inside..."
The fire dimmed.
"...it was built to keep something out."
Vivi's blood ran cold.
Deep beneath the capital...
Another chain snapped.